We watched the Exorcist the other night, which was very interesting (though the unedited ending in the special features is nonsensical without it being explicitly explained in a random interview with the director). What the movie really made me think of, in any case, is the legend of the jinn from Islamic folklore. Basically the article in particular that I had in mind was proposing that an evil jinn could influence a person to make them seem possessed, so it was interesting to watch the movie in that line along with the standard demon-possession idea. As for the jinn, to quickly summarize there are many different perspectives but basically they are a parallel form of life to humans (created from smokeless fire, as humans were created from clay and angels from light, but just as humans are no longer clay, they are no longer smokeless fire). They eat, sleep, have a society of sorts and even pets (no I don't know what they would keep as pets), and there are good and bad jinn, just like there are nice people and jerks. Also, the other interesting thing that kind of differentiates jinn from say, Greek gods, is that they are kept on a theological hierarchical level close to humans (ie, Mohammed was not just a prophet to humans, but also to jinn). According to the legends they have their supernatural powers and whatnot, but the idea is that they are held accountable for their use of them, i.e. if they exploit them or use them to help people). And if I got any of that bass-ackwards someone pleeaasse tell me.